Nearly 40 years after the initial prediction in 1964 by Monod and Jacob that cellular processes such as differentiation and protein regulation originate at the level of the gene, the field of synthetic and computational biology has emerged. Early work in the 1970's led to the realization that the complex networks contained in many biological systems would be impossible to model or even describe accurately without the use of advanced mathematics. The 1980's produced an explosion in readily available computing power along with the development of new mathematical techniques, such as non-linear dynamics and network analysis. In addition, toward the end of the last century, groundbreaking results from the fields of biotechnology and genetics gave the scientist the unprecedented ability to synthetically engineer simple biological systems.
The field of biological circuits combines all the above advances in mathematics, genetics, and biotechnology. This field draws heavily on the engineering principles of modularity, standardization, and predictive modeling to produce synthetic biological circuits and to also provide insight into naturally occurring complex biological networks. To date, simple synthetic biological circuit elements such as switches, oscillators and logic gates have been modeled theoretically and studied in the lab.
More complicated multi-element circuits and strongly interacting regulatory networks remain a challenge both computationally and experimentally, and much research is focused on both understanding the complex networks found in naturally occurring cellular systems (such as those found in stem cells) and in identifying the important characteristics and operating principles of such networks that might facilitate efficient design and construction of complex synthetic regulatory networks.